paulradcliffe.ca

New Home Gym

My most successful season was the spring of 2012. I went back through my records trying to understand what made that season so successful. One of the things that I noticed was I did weight training 3 times a week in that period. Now that the Chilly Half-Marathon is behind me, I have the flexibility to do more strength training and cross-training.

Just after Christmas, I got the stationary bike I had been musing about for a while. I was so busy with PMP studying I hadn’t had time to use it until recently. It isn’t anything amazing, but serves its purpose for 30 minutes of sweat when I can’t get out for a run.

New exercise bike, acquired January 2014

You can see in the above, I also have a small set of free weights in the basement. There are two 2.5-pound dumbbells, two 5-pound dumbbells, and two 10-pound dumbbells. These are nice to have, but I was starting to realize I would more weight and a bench to properly weight train at home.

I happened to see this Bench Set in the Canadian Tire flyer on sale for $120 and decided it was too good a deal to pass up. Some of the reviews were pretty lousy, and it’s only 100 pounds, but I imagine that will serve me fine for a while.

Image of the weight set from the Canadian Tire website

After a little research, I discovered to get a bench, rack, and ‘Olympic’ quality bar and weights similar to what is in the gym would cost me well over $700. So, I feel this set is a bit of a steal for a home gym and I’ll consider it a ‘beginner’ set.

The bench was a set including the weights, so the box was really heavy. It took 3 people to load it into my car. I decided to open the box in my trunk and carried it down to my basement in pieces over the course of several trips.

Some assembly required…	All shiny and new!
Good thing I enjoy assembling things!	It’s coming together
Can I include assembly of equipment as a dailymile workout?	Tada! Welcome to Paul’s Gym!

I’ve been getting jokes that I’ve now opened “Paul’s Gym” and should be charging memberships.

To complete the gym, I brought out some old toys:

Gymboss, strap, and resistance band

My GymBoss!

Some personalizing!

Stitch has taken up residence on the exercise bench. Apparently he can lift up to 3000 times his body weight. Something to aspire to!

So, Paul’s gym officially consists of:

•  Weight bench with bar of up to 100 pounds and preacher curl rest
• Two stationary exercise bikes
• Pilates Ball
• Bosu Ball
• Small dumbbell set (two of each 2.5 lbs, 5 lbs, 10 lbs)
• Various resistance bands
• Stretching strap
• Foam Roller

Here’s an example of a workout I did using this equipment that takes me about an hour:

• 3 minute cardio warmup on bike
• core warmup – dynamic planks
• dumbbell warmup, 10 pounds each hand
• Hang Clean, 85 pounds, 4 sets of 5
• Chest Press  85 pounds, 4 sets of 10
• Row, heavy elastic, 2 sets of 15
• Shoulder press on ball, 10 pounds each hand, 3 sets of 15
• Bulgarian Spit Squat with back foot on bosu ball, 30 pounds, 3 sets of 10 on each leg
• Tricep dip on bench, self-weight
• Preacher curl, 25 pounds, 3 sets of 15
• 3 point plank, 30 seconds per foot, 2 sets per foot
• Stretch
• Bike cool-down

Any recommendations of other exercises I should do?

Do you even lift, bro? I’m trying!!

I’ve been accused by more than one person of having some sort of mid-life crisis. I know there is typically a phase where lots of guys get into weight-lifting. Many much younger or older than me. All I know is that there are much less healthy ways to spend my time and my money. And, I’d like a superhero physique for when I run the Mississauga Half-Marathon in May as a fundraiser for the Trillium Health Partners Foundation.

Click here to donate now! (to the charity, not Paul’s Gym)